"These are companies that are going to grow top line," he said. "In our view, in the next couple of years, is all these companies we talked about, these are the ones that you want who are going to grow, not just have good dividends, good balance sheets and be 2, 3 percent growers.

"It doesn't really matter for us," he said. "Actually, if they don't consolidate, Delta and United are much better positioned because US Air and American will not have the capital to refurbish their airplanes."

Delta and United, he added, hold monopolies on the most-profitable routes.

"But the idea that these are secular growth companies within an economy that might not have to be raging because they have good products, good management and good top-line growth.

"What I'm afraid of is where you're seeing people who have substituted dividend stocks for bonds. You're not going to get the 'sell' from here. You're actually going to get multiple expansion as opposed to compression on the other side."